


Happens All the Time

by ValmureEld



Category: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Genre: Adam pretending he doesn't care when he cares a lot, Black Out, Caffeine Addiction, Gen, Heart Murmur, Hearts, Hurt/Comfort, Koller being over excited about everything, Passing Out, Surgery, headcannon turned into this, heart palpitation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-07 14:38:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8804749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ValmureEld/pseuds/ValmureEld
Summary: One second Koller was being his usual energetic self, the next he flat out collapsed in front of Adam. One shot because I got a headcannon about Koller and my sister wanted me to write it. No pairings. Adam pretends he's only worried about Koller because he needs him but everyone knows that's a lie.





	

The first time it happened, Adam thought he was going to have a heart attack. (Can a mechanical heart have an attack? Surely Sarif had designed it better than that but damn if it didn't feel like his heart was going to seize up and die on the spot if Koller didn't give him some kind of response.)

One second Adam had been leaning against a work table, arms crossed and hip snug against the counter listening to Vaclav go a mile a minute about new advances on glial tissue reduction that would hopefully move augs towards neuropozine independence. The next second Vaclav just dropped to the floor like so much dead metal. 

Adam's eyes went wide and he froze for half a second, the collapse taking him completely off guard. His instincts prickled and he glanced around for some kind of trap, shock, bullet or dart, but the room was clean and his smart vision revealed that he and Koller were still alone. “Koller??” he said, darting over and dropping to his knees by the young man, turning him over and patting his cheek. “Come on, kid, what's up with you??” 

His HUD automatically swapped to vitals scanning and he was relieved to see a pulse tick across his screen at the same time he heard Koller take a breath. The only problem was Koller's heart was going way too fast. Adam glanced at the coffee cup laying smashed a foot to the side where it had dropped when Koller had fallen unconscious. “Did you really dose yourself past sane levels with caffeine?”

Koller's thin chest gave a sigh beneath Adam's hand and he brought his three fingered hand up to his face. “Ughhh, probably.” 

Adam blinked, shifting around so he could look Koller in the face more easily. “What happened to you?”

He sat up slowly, holding his head in his hand. “Nothing, I'm fine. Blacked out for a moment, you know—it happens!” 

Adam sat up on his knees, hands held out in alarm as Koller twitched like he was going to try to get up. “Hold on, no. It doesn't just happen! Your heart is going a hundred and twenty, Koller. I'm getting a warning on my HUD. So just—sit still for a second,” he chided, pushing against Vaclav's chest to keep him down and make him rest against the supply shelf. 

“Yeah, that's probably the coffee. And the energy shot. And the caffeine stick I smoked--” he squinted. “About an hour ago.” 

Adam blinked at him. “Do you do this often—make yourself tachycardic and black out?”

“Less often now that I have my condition under control but--” he ran his hand through his hair, causing it to stick up strangely for a moment before it fell back in his face. “yeah. Used to happen quite a bit actually, especially when I was tinkering. I just get in the zone, man, you know?” 

“Wait hold on, your condition?” Adam asked, alarmed. “Vaclav, are you sick?”

“No, no, it's a harmless murmur. Had it since I had my surgery,” he said, waving a hand. The warning sensor had not stopped flashing on the part of Adam's HUD tracking Vaclav's vitals. 

Adam frowned. “Your prosthetic surgery....gave you a heart murmur?”

“No, no the surgery I had as a baby. To fix the hole in my heart.”

Adam blinked, sitting back on his heels and bracing his palm against his forehead. “You had a hole in your heart, you now have a murmur, and you routinely overdose on caffeine? Do you have a death wish?”

“Nah, man I just love life! That rush when you really get into something, you know? The endorphins, the excitement! There's nothing like it.”

“Yeah, nothing like a heart attack at twenty seven,” Adam said dryly. 

“Come on, I'm fine,” Vaclav brushed him off, gripping the edge of the table with an unsteady hand and wincing as he pulled himself up, slipping on a shard of his broken coffee mug. Alarmed, Adam bodily grabbed Koller around the ribs and lifted him like he would a small child until he was standing on his own, albeit with the table for support. 

“Koller, you have got to stop doing this. I depend on you. What am I going to do if I come down here for help and you're laying there with an exploded heart?”

Koller smiled and glanced at Adam under his bangs. “I'll be fine, man.” He straightened up and gave Adam a jittery pat on the arm as he walked carefully past him. “I care about you too.”


End file.
